Today I had a short opinion piece in Chemical and Engineering News on publishing negative results, a topic that I covered about this time last year in the Guardian on the occasion of the publication my lab’s first paper on an experiment that didn’t work out.
Basically, I think it’s a good idea. The practice will help to correct the positive bias in the research literature, and to map out territory that has been fruitlessly explored (so avoiding unnecessary re-investigation). Traditionally it’s been hard to do because journals don’t like negative results, but with the advent of megajournals and preprint servers, there are now practical outlets for these valuable if unexciting observations.
Please have a read – and tell your friends.
